The invention relates to a thread carrier for a knitting machine, having at least one controllable thread gripper and having an inserter which, at the extremity from which the thread emerges, is configured as an open channel.
Thread carriers of this kind (British Patent 1,502,370, British Publication 20 99 464) serve for feeding a thread for a certain period of time to the needles of a knitting machine and then gripping it. For this purpose the thread carriers are provided, as a rule, with at least one crank which is rocked back and forth for the insertion and removal of the thread, between the inserter and the thread gripper, while the thread gripper and the inserter are substantially fixedly disposed. Consequently difficulties arise in automatic control, especially when the thread carriers have to be carried as a whole along a needle bed, in conjunction, for example, with special flat bed knitting machines (U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,246). If what is involved is a thread carrier by which several threads are to be selectively inserted, a corresponding number of cranks and thread grippers are required. The thread carrier thus calls for a greater amount of space.
It is therefore the object of the invention to design the thread carrier of the kind defined above such that it can be controlled in a simple manner and will interfere as little as possible with access to the knitting tools of the knitting machine.